Sheet manufacturing apparatuses conventionally use a slurry process in which feedstock including fiber is soaked in water, defibrated by primarily a mechanical action, and then rescreened. Sheet manufacturing apparatuses using such wet slurry methods require a large amount of water, and are large. Maintenance of the water processing system is also laborious, and the drying process requires much energy.
Dry process sheet manufacturing apparatuses that use little to no water have therefore been proposed to reduce equipment size and energy consumption. For example, JP-A-2012-144819 describes defibrating pieces of paper into fibers in a dry-process defibrator, deinking the fibers in a cyclone separator, passing the deinked fiber through a foraminous screen on the surface of a forming drum, and laying the fiber on a mesh belt using the suction of a suction device to form paper. The technology described in JP-A-2012-144819 strengthens the hydrogen bonds between fibers by misting the sheet of deinked fiber laid on the mesh belt with water by means of a water sprayer.